Sitting in a quiet carriage of a train to Gatwick Airport, my thoughts turned to the women taking this same route back to Ireland after travelling to the UK for abortions. I wondered if anyone was on this train for that very purpose. More than 170 000 women have travelled abroad from Ireland seeking abortions since 1980.

Having arrived at Gatwick Airport, I met two volunteers working with the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign who were taking the same flight to Dublin as me.

'North is next’: fresh fight for grassroots power that beat Ireland abortion ban
Women who rallied across borders to win referendum have their sights set on Northern Ireland and northern Australia

Melissa Davey
Fri 1 Jun 2018

Just a few years ago, the Abortion Rights Campaign in Ireland was predominantly active in the capital of Dublin. By the time a landslide 66.4% of the country voted on 25 May to repeal the eighth amendment and give women easier access to abortion, the Abortion Rights Campaign had 36 offshoot groups outside the capital, including in counties where Catholicism and conservatism are deeply entrenched.

The Dublin-based organiser for the Abortion Rights Campaign, Cathie Shiels, knows how hard it is to stand in the middle of a remote Irish-Catholic town holding up a placard advocating for abortion reform. She comes from Donegal, close to the Northern Ireland border and the only county that voted “No” in the referendum.

In the last few days of the referendum campaign on the Eight Amendment dozens of small posters appeared around Dublin.

The image was of Savita Halappanavar, instantly recognisable from her thick dark hair, wide smile, smiling eyes, and the Bindi dot on the forehead. The message contained one word: Yes. They were striking in their simplicity and directness.

The Savita case (read Kitty Holland’s report from 2012 here) was never too far away from people’s minds during the eight weeks that this extraordinary referendum campaign seeped into Irish public consciousness on doorsteps, in the streets, in the media, or on the airwaves… right up to polling day.

A new tool from Facebook that allows users in Ireland to view the sources of sponsored posts ahead of a referendum on abortion rights fails the test of true transparency on the platform, say critics.

Launched initially on April 25 as part of a transparency pilot program, the View Ads feature shows Irish users all ads any Facebook page is promoting to people in Ireland, even if those ads are not in their individual news feed.

The Pro Life Campaign’s definition of love is cruel
Diarmaid Ferriter: It is a strange kind of love that denies a teenage rape victim an abortion

Sat, Apr 21, 2018
Diarmaid Ferriter

Speaking at the unveiling of the Pro Life Campaign’s “Love Both” campaign during the week, spokeswoman Caroline Simons said: “Voters who support abortion in limited circumstances need to know that what they hope for with repeal and what they get are two entirely different things.”

What astounding arrogance. Simons has decided that those who will vote for the removal of the amendment have no independence of mind and are naive, delusional dupes who will vote next month unaware of the reality of what they are doing and devoid of a capacity for love. She has also decided what they hope for.

With just seven weeks to go before the abortion referendum, campaigners on the Repeal side in Sligo this week say they found a big appetite for information and a high level of engagement as they went door to door.

Local artist Paul Murray reckons they had canvassed up to 400 houses so far, getting an overwhelmingly positive response. “But in fairness it was getting close to kick off in the Liverpool/Manchester City game when we were out on Wednesday evening so they may have been saying anything to get rid of us,” he said.

In May, Ireland will vote on a referendum to determine whether or not to legalize abortion. The country currently has a near-total ban on abortion, with the only exception being when a pregnant person's life is at risk, but the referendum could repeal this ban if enough people vote in favor of it. But as the vote approaches, anti-abortion protesters have taken to the streets in Dublin — and not all of them are Irish. In fact, there are some Americans protesting abortion in Ireland, sparking concerns of foreign influence on the upcoming referendum.